Alarm clock wakes you like [Lawrence Welk]

That awful buzzing/beeping beside the bed in the morning might not seem so bad if it were a cascade of bubbles instead. At least that’s what [Will] is hoping for. He took a child’s toy and turned it into a bubble blowing alarm clock.

We’re guessing you’re not going to be too happy with the alarm settings feature. This isn’t using a real-time clock, or any clock at all really. [Will] rolled his own light detection circuit using a PNP transistor whose base is controlled by an LDR. When the light level in the room reaches a certain threshold the bubbles start streaming out of the front of this thing. He test the system in the video by switching a lamp on and off in a dark room.

Up at dawn has never been a way we could describe ourselves, but the one-wire control method seen here could easily be provided by a microcontroller rather than the LDR. Oh, and for those that don’t get it; the [Lawrence Welk] show always started with a screen full of bubbles.

I remember it. The bubbles were the only cool part. Otherwise it was incredibly boring, especially to a small child.

And there was nothing good on at that time slot on the other channels, either. Though even Hee Haw was better than Lawrence Welk.

Was an excellent time to play with my Rivetron instead. How many of you remember those? It was my first maker toy, even before I had Legos, and I loved it. At least until mom saw on the news that some idiot kid choked on a rubber rivet, causing the age recommendations to be raised. Since I was suddenly too young, the Rivetron went in the trash; despite that I’d had it for almost a year, and knew better than to eat my toys.